Dream Catchers
by bittersweetties
Summary: "I've never seduced anyone in my life! What am I suppose to do?" "Just be yourself." "Myself? Hi Arthur, nice to meet you. I've just been offered five million dollars and an out to break into your head. Shall we go get some coffee?" "Perfect." Arthur/OC
1. Chapter 1

So, I saw the movie and I had to write this. I've read a couple of the stories for this, but I didn't really like where any of them were going, so I decided to give it a shot myself. I hope you guys enjoy. The first chapter is just setting up the plot for the story, which I'm kind of proud of, so bare through it. This is an Arthur/OC just because Arthur is completely amazing! So please read and enjoy. :)

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"Mr. Giovanni is ready to see you now." When it came to these kind of meetings, the majority of us agreed to let Cameron do the talking. There was just something about him that drew you to him. This odd glow in his personality that made you want to trust him. He's kind of what brings us all together.

"You're Cameron Hunter, correct?" Cameron Cohen, but there isn't any need for you to know that, so you won't.

"Yes I am and it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Giovanni. This here is Elena, she's my partner in crime." I nodded politely to him. Cam had this odd obsession with taking me with him when we first met clients. I'm sure apart of it was having a cute girl ease the tension, but I think on another level, he was wary of leaving me alone with Bert. After the incident, the man wasn't as solid as he used. His mind was slowly crumbling. I think Cam had this odd paranoia that when Bert snapped, I'd be the first person he came after, so it was better to have me close than to not have me at all.

"Hm. She's actually the reason I requested your services." The atmosphere took a quick turn. Cam was the star, he was always the star. He was the main extractor. He could get into someone's head and out in under half an hour in the dream world which is 2.5 minutes in the real world. He was able to get people to confess the truth to him, to tell them their darkest secrets. In short, he was the best. It was a surprise that Bernard Giovanni asked for him by name because it happened all the time. We were used to it. This on the other hand we weren't. I was the point man. I got the background information required. I was the one who observed our marks, who found out every little detail about them. I was good, I'll admit that, but I wasn't big. My name wasn't spread about, not like Cam's. I was just the sidekick. The cute girl sidekick sure but the sidekick none the less.

"I don't understand Mr. Giovanni. Perhaps you could explain what you mean by that." Cam's shoulders were tense, his hands clenched. He could tell when a meeting was heading downhill, and that meant run and run fast. Sure Cam was good, but that meant he made a lot of enemies. We always had an exit strategy. Mr. Giovanni seemed to notice this.

"The exits are guarded. The windows here are bullet proof, the emergency stairwell is locked off, and we've got your hotel under surveillance. Now, Cameron Cohen, which in case you weren't aware is your real name, you have no where to run." This was bad. Really bad. We'd walked right into a trap. "Fortunately for you, my problems aren't with you, but with someone else in your field." Wait. Did this mean that we were safe? That he wasn't after us?

"Someone else in our field?" There weren't a lot of people in the business of extraction. It was one of those things that was hard to get into, but impossible to get out of.

"Hm. Perhaps you've heard of Cobb?" Cobb was a household name to anyone in the field. Everyone heard of him, it was hard not to. He was the original. He wasn't the first to delve into peoples subconscious but he was the first to profit off of it. Rumor was he'd hit the jackpot and done some big jobs for some important people. To add to that, he was supposedly retired, which never happens in our field. He was the one we aspired to be. There was even a rumor that he'd performed inception, but of course that's just a rumor. Inception was impossible. We all knew that.

"What about Cobb?"

"There's an associate of his that stole something of great value to me. I want it back."

"I'm sorry?" An associate of Cobb's?

"He has something that I require, and I need you to get it for me. I need you to get the information. That's what you do, right? You steal people's ideas." I hated it when they undermined us like that. We didn't just steal peoples ideas. Do you have any idea how complicated it is to pull off something like that? It takes months of planning, and a ton of research, and that's all they call it? Stealing ideas. Yeah right.

"Wait a second. When you say an associate of Cobb's, you don't mean..."

"Yes. That's exactly what I mean. He's in the same field you are."

"Hate to break it to you, but it's impossible. Now if you'll excuse us, we should get going." Cam made to move up but was quickly pushed down by one of the three security guards. The situation wasn't looking good.

"You don't have a choice Mr. Cohen, so for your sake, I hope it's not as impossible as you claim it is." Crap. We were screwed. I could see Cam getting nervous, but I was sure he'd be able to fix this. Hopefully.

"Mr. Giovanni, there seems to be some sort of misunderstanding. You're aware that what we do is enter people's dreams, correct?" The man nodded. "Because of this, we've trained our subconscious to prevent anyone from entering. It's simple really. A thief's house is always heavily guarded, or so they say." I rolled my eyes at Cam. He totally just made that up. "So you understand why we can't enter his dreams and get the information you require. The level of difficulty is too high."

"Five million." Did I hear that right?

"Excuse me?"

"Five million dollars, and an out."

"An out?" This time it was my turn to speak. Did he really say that? Was he actually offering what I think he was offering?

"Yes. An out." If there was anything that we enjoyed more than breaking into peoples dreams and stealing their ideas, it was not breaking into their dreams and stealing their ideas. Once you started, you carried on in necessity. It was near impossible to get an out. Mr. Giovanni was powerful. If he said he could do it, he could do it. The question was, what was so important that he would offer so much?

"Just let me get this straight. You want us to break into the head of someone who breaks into head, and get the information you're looking for. For this you're willing to pay us five million dollars and give us out? Mr. Giovanni, your offer sounds tempting but we don't know if you can deliver. We've got a lot of enemies, and it's going to cost you a lot to pay them all off."

"If you can do this job, not only will I give you the out, I'll still be in your debt." This information was valuable, apparently really valuable. Cobb's was legendary, no doubt about it, and as far as anyone was concerned it was practically suicide to go after him. He was protected by someone asian tycoon called Saito. This protection didn't extend to his associates they were fair game and apparently one of them screwed up real big.

"Just how exactly do you expect us to get into his head?" I could tell Cameron was getting frustrated. Planning was typically my area of expertise and even I was drawing a blank. Unless... no it couldn't be.

"This is why I hired you. You especially." His eyes turned in my direction, and I remembered him mentioning me earlier. "You're going to get inside his head before entering his dreams."

"Wait a second! You want her to seduce him?" Cameron wouldn't let this happen right? I mean, surely he'd put an end to it. I mean, sure I was cute, but I was cute. I couldn't play that whole seductress card, it wasn't my forte. But if he was talking about what I think he was talking about...

"Something along those lines. The look on your face tells me you understand where I'm going with this Ms. Prescott." Cameron looked at me, demanding an explanation, but not now. For later.

"We'll do it." For once it was me that spoke. "We accept your offer." Cameron looked like he was ready to make a retort, but even he couldn't. This was an out we were looking at. Nothing could change our minds when it came to this.

"And our target?" Cameron was straight to the point.

"His name is Arthur..."

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So, that's the first chapter, and please leave reviews! What'd you like? What'd you dislike?  
How're you liking/ not liking the plot? I'm really curious to know, so please review and then I promise to have the next one out as fast as I can!


	2. Chapter 2: The details

:) So, here's the next installment super quick and speedy. There's no Arthur in this one, he will be appearing a lot in the next one though. I just needed to introduce the rest of the team, and I'm sorry if this might be a little boring but we need the background information to make sure the stories got a plot, so enjoy.

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"Elena. This is serious. So obviously you know something that-" Cam was panicked. It wasn't a big surprise, he got like this sometimes when he lost control and wasn't sure how to get it back. I glanced up from the boxes I was sifting through.

"Will you wait a second." It had to be here somewhere, but there were so many papers. I think I might've spilled coffee on it or something...Oh! There. "Here."

"The neurological recessive patterns exhibited in REM stage sleep procure an effect that inebriates..." Cam rolled his eyes before tossing the paper on the ground. He caught the name on the front. "What is this?"

"It's my essay. It's what got us into this mess." He picked up the papers again and began sifting through them.

"It's all a bunch of science crap. Who knew you were such a nerd?"

"Look be serious for a second."

"Well I'm trying to be but I don't get how some essay totally screwed us over."

"It's not the essay itself so much as the theory presented in it."

"Go on."

"Well, this was before I was aware that we could actually enter peoples dreams and stuff. So in my science class we were discussing how our body would fight off invaders, and it did this by destroying what was unfamiliar."

"Uh huh."

"So I applied that concept to the reality of dreams and wrote an essay about it."

"Mhm."

"That's it."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I don't speak nerd." I shot Cam a glare and resisted the urge to throw something at him. I glanced around the loft. We were the only ones here.

"It means that the more familiar you are with a person, the less hostile your subconscious is. That's why we can spend so much time in each other's dreams, without our defenses acting up. Because we feel safe with each other."

"So, what you're saying, is that if we can get close enough to this Arthur guy, and get so close to him to the point he feels safe with us, then we can enter his dreams, without his subconscious, as highly trained as it is, screwing us over?"

"Sort of. I mean, keep in mind it's all just a theory, but it seems to add up. I can't think of any other reason we can enter each other's dreams."

"No. It makes sense. But, It's kind of general. I mean how close would you have to get?"

"Just till the point they felt safe with you."

"Who felt safe with who?" The two of us glanced at the entrance to the loft. Madeline and Bert were back. Madeline was the type of girl who constantly died her hair different natural looking colors. Currently she was a brownish-red. I wasn't sure what her natural hair color was, but she was definitely a good looking girl. She was a bit on the short side, pale, and with freckles, but she had these gorgeous green eyes. The kind of eyes you wish you had, or at least, I wish I had. Bert was one of those ruggedly handsome kind of guys. He had that messy hair, and a bit of scruff, but he some how made it all come together. It was unnerving how good looking he was, because there was just something off about him. Cam had the kind of looks that made you feel at ease, but Bert, his appearance made you uncomfortable, or maybe it was just me. Maddie always seemed fine around him.

Madeline headed in our direction, but Bert headed towards the bookshelves near the window. He calmly moved his hands down the side of the shelf until he found the small drawer which housed our small weapon supply. Just to be on the safe side.

"Woah! Bert man, put those down!" Cam was the first one to catch onto what Bert was doing, Maddie was the first to panic.

"We were being trailed on the way home. The guys followed us to the apartment. We've got to go and fast-" Bert was loading in the ammunition, and he was doing it fast. It made me uneasy how well he could handle a gun, but there were a lot of things that made me uneasy about him.

"Bert. Look we can explain that. Put the guns down and let us tell you-"

"You can explain the fact that we were tailed? What Cam, you don't trust us? You having us followed?" He was letting his paranoia act up again.

"Bert, calm down. That's insane. Let Cam explain what's going on. No one was having us followed." Maddie made a motion to approach him, but Bert raised the gun. She instantly backed off.

"Bert. Stop it." It was my first time speaking, and it was the first time he seemed to notice I was there. "No one was having you followed. Will you put the gun away so we can explain." Bert let out a loud sigh, before complying. He emptied the bullets and placed them back. Cam shot me a scolding look, upset I'd gotten so involved. He was protective like that. Maddie shot me a grateful look. She was a coward like that. Either way, I seemed to be the only one Bert seemed to listen to, but even that was slipping. He was becoming more unstable, and we were all starting to wonder just what we would do with him.

"So, why exactly were we being tailed...?" Bert was back to his normal self, and Cam and Maddie seemed to calm down. He shot me an apologetic nod which I just smiled at. He really did give me the creeps sometimes.

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"Five million?" Was Maddie's response.

"An out?" Was Bert's.

"Yeah. This is our biggest Mark yet guys, so lets not screw this up." Cam had calmed down again and was back to his old leader self. Things seemed to be looking up.

"Sounds good. So when do we leave?"

"Tonight."

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I'm working on the next chapter as you read, and it's full of yummy Arthur goodness so be sure to review and I'll have the next one out soon.  
Also, if you guys have read any other good Arthur/oc fics please let me know.

:) And also let me know what you think about the characters so far, and how the plots going?


	3. Chapter 3: The plan

So, despite what I said last time, Arthur makes his appearance next chapter, but to compensate for that, this entire chapter is essentially about him. This ends the planning stages in the story, and the plan is set into motion next chapter, which at the rate I'm going, should be out soon.

Thanks for everyone that reviewed last chapter, and I hope you enjoy this!

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"So, what do we got?"

"Okay. So. He's 29 years old. He lives alone. No criminal record, he pays his taxes. He's given some money to charity. From this he looks like your average American citizen." Maddie continued reading the information Bernard Giovanni had provided, but so far, nothing of interest had turned up.

"This is a bunch of bullshit." Cam was the first to get frustrated. "He tells us to get into this guys head and he gives us nothing of importance. Why the fuck does it matter to us what kind of car he drove two years ago?" I was ready to interject but Cam had a point.

"If we're trying to get close to this guy, we're going to need to know what it is he likes. What kind of music he listens to, what books he reads. Now her, we can use." Maddie was pointing to a picture of a pretty red head. "Her names Ariadne. I don't know what she is to him, but she's with him constantly." Maddie began handing out a bunch of pictures of the two together. Giovanni had obviously had this guy followed for some time.

"I don't get why Giovanni just doesn't torture the information out of him or something. I mean, it seems like it'd be less of a pain." Cam commented. Bert was the one to answer.

"Torture isn't as effective as they'd have you believe. This guy could lie and Giovanni wouldn't know. He wants this information badly, and he wants to make sure it's right. On top of that, if he hired us, he probably wants it kept quiet. For all the trouble he's going to, I can't wait to find out what it is."

"Yeah yeah. That's great, but lets get over the why and focus on the how. Now, back to the pictures." We were currently sitting on the floor of our newly furnished apartment. It wasn't over the top, but for a four bedroom apartment in New York it definitely wasn't cheap. I sorted through some of the pictures before voicing my thoughts.

"She's not holding his hand, and they're a safe distance apart. I don't think they're dating, but based on how much time they spend together, It's only a matter of time."

"So, we need to get her out of the picture. Okay, cool. Lets kill her and then console him in his time of mourning. Short and simple." Cam gave a laugh and Bert rolled his eyes. Maddie could be a bit eccentric at times.

"If you killed her, everyone would freak out. Part of the reason we were hired might have something to do with the fact that our operation is quiet. So, no big murder plots. Okay?" Bert was once again the voice of reason. He seemed to be calm again, back to his normal self. I sort of liked him like this.

"I can deal with her." Cam replied staring at the picture. "Red heads love me, besides she's kind of cute." Maddie, Bert and I made eye contact. If there was one thing we could agree on, Cam was a flirt, but a good one at that.

"Oh how generous of you. You are much too kind." Maddie mocked.

"Yeah. I know. But when you're as good looking as me-"

"Who says you're good looking. I think it's more of an 'he's so ugly, I'll take pity,' kind of thing." Was my response.

"Well, whichever it is, I get laid and that's all that matters. So, we've got her out. How shall we do re-con?" At this all eyes turned to me. As the point man, I was in charge of information gathering.

"These are all the places he goes to. We'll check them each out, observe him for a bit and then decide on a plan of approach." I explained, pulling out a map and circling his favorite spots. Giovanni's information wasn't all useless.

"I think that'll take too long. I think we should be forward. Just look cute and draw him in." Cam glanced at me, as if wanting my opinion on her idea.

"It seems too risky to be so brash. I mean, we don't know his personality yet. We don't know how he'll respond to that kind of approach. Also, keep in my mind that we're basing all of this stuff on a theory."

"A very brilliant theory, I might add." Cam threw in his fickle compliment with a cheesy grin on his face.

"Shut up." Bert and Maddie said, waiting for me to continue.

"I think it's best to take it slow." Maddie rolled her eyes.

"I'll give your method a month. If we have nothing to show for it after that, then I'm moving in." Cam gave a whistle.

"Oh gosh. Cat fight." I was looking for something to throw but Bert beat me to it, tossing a pillow in Cam's directions.

"What's our first move?"

"Well, tomorrows a Saturday. He spends a lot of time at the university library on Saturday." I continued to scan through the sheet looking for anything else that could be relevant. "Umm...Sometimes he has dinner with a couple friends, but so far we don't have much to go on."

"Well then, I guess we're going to the library tomorrow." Bert said getting off the floor and heading towards his bedroom.

"Excellent. I have lots of cute librarian outfits. Don't worry El, I'll share." The group gave a laugh. Maddie had a thing for the undercover missions. She enjoyed the disguises more than anything. I gave a slight yawn.

Tomorrow, we were going to the library.

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So, I wasn't actually sure just what university it was that kept popping up in the movie, and I wasn't sure just where it was they all lived, but new york seemed like a safe bet so I went with that.

Review please. The more reviews the faster I update!


	4. Chapter 4: A New Goal

Thank you guys for all the reviews so far and I hope you keep them coming.  
:) Enjoy the next chapter!

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He had awoken at 10:22 to answer the phone, then slept for another half an hour. At 10:52 he awoke, and prepared breakfast. Today he ate eggs and bacon, with coffee to drink. After that he hopped into the shower, put on a pair of jeans and a sweater, made a couple phone calls. He left his three-bedroom apartment at around 2:30p.m. in the afternoon, and made his way to the library where me and Maddie lay in waiting.

According to Giovanni's reports he spent an average of three hours at the library. That was all we knew. We didn't know what books he read, what things he looked up or anything like that. Just that we had a standard three hours to observe him. So, in these three hours, it was decided that Bert and Cam would be in charge of searching and setting up surveillance in the apartment. We would tell them just when it was we thought he'd be leaving, and they would leave the apartment with Arthur none the wiser.

He arrived at the library at 2:55, with food. The time now was 3:10, and he had done nothing but flip through some psych textbook while eating his bagel.

"This is ridiculous. This guy is more boring than you." Today we were dressed as blond university students. It was a big change from my usual black hair, and the wig was a bit itchy. Not to mention the fact that the glasses were kind of annoying, but we couldn't run the risk of coming here as our normal selves and having him recognize us later. Our team was just the four of us. It wasn't always like this, but after a couple years of betrayal and screw ups, it was decided that our number would stay four. Too many people caused too many problems. It didn't matter that we had to do a little more work, because we could trust each other to do it.

"I'm not boring." Maddie gave a laugh at that.

"This isn't fair. I wanted to search his apartment. It's so much more fun than this. I mean, do you know how many secrets people have just lying around in their apartment?"

"More than the secrets they have lying around in the library." Then it happened. At 3:15, Ariadne, the red head we were sure might be a problem, waltzed right into the library and headed straight for his table. We had positioned ourselves close enough so that we could eavesdrop on any conversation he had, though we weren't aware he'd been expecting company.

"Hey." She smiled, catching his attention. He looked up the book he was reading and smiled. "Sorry I'm late. I got held up talking to Miles." Maddie nudged me.

"Whose Miles?"

"Miles is a university professor. He's Cobb's father in law, and I also believe he's the one who introduced the two." I said flipping through my little black book. I'd taken the liberty of organizing all the notes that could possibly be useful to us. Maddie nodded, becoming silent so we could return to the conversation.

"No problem. I was thinking we'd take a look at Neo-Victorian architecture." Arthur said, picking up some books he had brought to the table earlier. "From what I've gathered, it's his favorite." Arthur flipped through some pages before pointing at a couple pages.

"Whose he talking about?" Maddie inquired, but there was no mention in my notes of anyone in particular. I shrugged and we continued to listen.

"So, if we can recreate his favorite designs, we can get him comfortable?" Arthur nodded at Ariadne's words, and resumed flipping through some more pages.

"If you compare his work to these designs, it's obvious where he draws his inspiration from. It's possible the vault could be within one of his oldest designs." Ariadne nodded, seeming to get where he was going with this.

"You think it could be in the first house he made?" Arthur nodded. Me and Maddie glanced at each other.

"I don't fucking believe it." Maddie said voicing both of our thoughts. "We're working a job on a guy whose working a job. Could this be anymore screwed up?"

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"His names Paul Wood. He's probably one of the most brilliant architects of our time. The guy is a genius. His designs have won awards for everything. Seriously. He's even won an award for best architect of the year." Cam said, flipping through the notes he'd taken while observing Arthur's apartments. In total, they'd had 6 hours to search. Arthur and Ariadne didn't leave the library until 8:24, and then they went and grabbed dinner. If we wanted to move in, we'd need to get her out of the picture.

"Whose hiring them?" I asked, setting up the surveillance equipment. While Bert and Cam were going through Arthur's apartment, they took the liberty of planting cameras and mics all over the place. The phone lines had also been tapped. They'd done this before. There was no way Arthur would find them.

"Well, being as good as he is, he's made a ton of enemies. The main one is Oliver Reid. Reid lost his biggest design contract because of Paul. He's paying Arthur and co. 152,000 to steal Wood's newest design." Cam tossed the sheets on the floor and placed his face into his hands.

"152, 000? That's a lot of money. A lot of money." I mean, sure we were getting paid 5 million, but before that lucky break, the average charge for a customer was around 30 grand.

"Why is he paying so much?" Maddie inquired, and Bert answered.

"They're the best. They can afford to charge more. Aside from that, Reid's got a contract offer of 7.2 million set up if he can offer a solid design. In this case, Wood's design." We nodded, understanding the situation.

"This could put a damper in our plans. I thought they were all retired but apparently we were misinformed. I guess Cobb's was the only one who decided to call it quits. But there's no point stalking Arthur when he's in another country. We'll have to wait it out till they finish this. There's no point introducing ourselves if he's going to forget us." Maddie voiced her thoughts allowed, and though I listened my eyes were on Cam, who still had his face in his hands.

"Hey Cam. You alright?"

"They're not going anywhere."

"Of course they are. They've got a job." It was common knowledge that if you were doing a job, you never did it near where you lived. If it blew up in your face you'd have no where to run. So, whenever a job was to be completed, it was always done in a different country. A different city or a different state was still too risky. A different continent would be best.

"The jobs happening in New York. They're not leaving." That was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. Even amateurs didn't make those kind of mistakes.

"They've gotten arrogant." Bert said. But it seemed off to me.

"There's got to be something more. They've always been the cautious type. Why would they do a job so close to home? Why now? Why run the risk when they're so close to home?" It didn't make sense to me. There had to be some other kind of reason. Right?

"It doesn't matter. We need to make sure they pull this off. If they screw it up, they're on the run and so are we. We can't afford letting Arthur out of our sights. We need him comfortable, and with his guard down. If he's a little arrogant the better. New goal guys. We need to make sure they pull this off. Bert, you run re-con on Arthur, Maddie you're in charge of the surveillance tapes and phone calls. If he makes contact with anyone it's on you to tell us. El as point man you're in charge of Paul Wood. Make sure you find out everything. If they missed something even small, it could blow up in their face." Just like always Cam took control.

"And you?" I asked, to which Cam gave a wink.

"I've got a red-head to seduce."

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Thoughts? Opinions? let me know what you liked and didn't like.

What're your thoughts on the plot?  
The more you review the faster I update so review lots please!


	5. Chapter 5: Back to the Library

So, it's a little short, but finally we meet Arthur. About time, right?

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"I really don't think we should be doing this. I mean, shouldn't you be watching the surveillance tapes?" Maddie shrugged.

"Bert's taking care of it." We were both wearing our blond university student disguises, and coincidentally, we were back in the library.

"Bert's suppose to be watching Arthur."

"And he is. He's watching him on the tapes."

"But if Arthur leaves his apartment-"

"He won't. He's a point man. You know how you get when you're on a job. He's going to be locked up in that place for a bit." With that being said, you may be wondering why we were at the library if he wasn't here. Well, there's a very simple reason for that.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Our heads shot up as Cam finally made his move. He'd freak out if he knew we were spying on him, but it just wasn't the type of thing we could resist. He was dressed casually in jeans and a sweater vest, his hair messy. He gave Ariadne a small boyish smile, and she politely smiled back.

"Sure." She said, her answer hesitant. She pointedly glanced at all the empty tables around them and back at him. He nervously messed up his hair, before taking the seat.

"I'm Nathaniel, but everyone just calls me Nate."

"Hm." She continued to ignore him, and returned to her book. Another novel on Neo-victorian Architecture.

"She's probably still trying to get the details right for the Wood's job." I said biting my lip. "It's going to be hard to get her attention if she's anything like us."

"They got that wrong." Cam said, pointing to a point on the page. From where we were sitting we couldn't see what.

"You think he's just talking? Or that he actually did his research?" Maddie asked. I had known Cam longer, so the answer was more obvious to me.

"He used to be our architect. He knows his stuff." I responded. The two of us continued to follow the conversation.

"What'd you mean, wrong?" Ariadne's slight agitation at being bothered seem to disappear. In fact, she seemed to get a bit nervous.

"She's obviously new at this." I nodded, agreeing. The little details were always difficult to grasp for a new architect. As you got better though, you realized they didn't make much difference. No one ever cared for little details.

"That concept was first introduced in the renaissance era. It's a small thing, but I bet there are others like it. The newer books kind of take the gist. If you're interested in the Neo-Victorian era, there's an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History." Me and Maddie glanced at each other. Cam had really done his research.

"Sometimes I forget how good he is." Maddie voiced.

"Sometimes I wish I could forget." Was my response. He never ceased to amaze me. This seemed to catch her attention.

"Really? It's happening right now?" Cam nodded.

"I've always been interested in older architecture. It's what I'm studying right now. I know a ton about Neo-Victorian art. It's my favorite." Lie. He was a renaissance man to the core.

"Really? I've never seen you around." Cam shrugged.

"New York is a pretty big place." Ariadne seemed to think about what he was saying before glancing at her books.

"I don't know anything about the era. But, I've got this huge paper do and maybe..."

"Oh. She's good." Maddie voiced. I shrugged.

"Pft. That was all Cam, and you know it."

"Hey! Who picked out his clothes?" I gave a laugh at that one. It seemed like Cam was playing her right into his hands.

"Yeah. I'd be happy to tell you all about it." Cam smiled, ready to make his exit, but she cut him off.

"How about now?"

"Now?"

"Yeah. Can we go now?"

"To the exhibit?"

"Yes. My papers due in about a week so I'm a little pressed for time." Me and Maddie glanced at each other. We seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. It was good that she was so eager to go with him, but that wasn't what caught our attention.

"Did she say in a week?" Maddie said voicing my thoughts.

"It seems really rushed to me." I said. You should never be pressed for time on a job. You take it slow and do it when you're ready. The deadlines clients give are more like guidelines. "I told you something was off. Taking a mission this close to home and rushing it. Somethings going on that we don't know about." I guess it was my job to figure it out. I was going to tell Maddie that we should get going when I noticed him enter the library. "Shit." Maddie glanced where I was looking and said the same thing.

Arthur had just walked into the library.

* * *

:) So the next one the confrontation begins.

Remember to review! The more you review, the faster I update!


	6. Chapter 6: Tackle the problem

It's short. Really, really short. And I'm sorry but I've been busy and just wanted to get something out. The next one will be longer. Promise!

* * *

There are a lot of ways to get a guys attention. You could accidently spill something on them, ask them for directions, steal something from them and act like they dropped it. However, there's nothing that grabs a guys attention quite like tackling them to the floor.

Yes. You read that right.

In all honesty, it wasn't a complete mission failure. The disguises had payed off, and there was no way he'd be able to recognize us later on.

"Hi. Excuse us, sorry to bother you, but do you know where the psych section is?" I asked, catching his attention. He paused in his walking and glanced at us. He scratched the back of his head, thinking for a second.

"Um... We're in the psych section." He said, glancing around at the bookshelves.

"Oh. This is it?" Maddie said, trying to lighten up my failure. Why would I ask that? Of all the possible sections... why that?

"Um. Yeah it is." He gave us an odd look before pointing to the sign right in front of us, that clearly said 'Psychology.' Crap. I felt like a moron.

"Oh. Sorry, we just transfered our majors and we're still a little confused." This seemed to pique his attention.

"You transfered your majors?"

"Mhm." He gave an incredulous look.

"In the middle of the semester?" Crap. Why was this so difficult? I mean, it shouldn't be this hard to waste a couple minutes, but he seemed to be catching every lie we swung his way. I guess it made sense. His entire life is revolved around making people believe lies. It only makes sense he's able to figure them out.

"We really hated our current major." I decided to let Maddie do all the talking. It definitely was not my strong suit.

"Oh. What'd you major in?"

"Architecture. Couldn't stand it. What'd about you?" I saw this disaster happening right after Maddie said those words. I'd done my research.

"I majored in Architecture." That abruptly ended any conversation we were going to be having.

"Oh." Maddie couldn't think of anything to say, Arthur gave a polite nod and started to walk away. To be honest, I was just going to let him go, then Maddie had a brilliant idea.

Arthur wasn't talking to us. He was walking away from us. Away from us towards Cam and Ariadne. What's the best way to prevent this from happening? Why, to get Arthur to stop walking. How do we get him to stop walking? Oh. Why not throw the closest object nearby at him. What's the closest object? In this case, it happened to be me.

So, she pushed me towards him, and actually pushed me, and I didn't want to fall, so I grabbed him and ended up tackling him to the floor.

After a quick apology, a glance at Cam and Ariadne's empty table, we took off.

* * *

So, sorry it's so short, but review and the next one will be longer and out faster!


	7. Chapter 7: Spy

Sorry about the slow updates, but I've been really busy lately! Enjoy! :)

* * *

"I can't believe you!" I'll admit that the situation may have been a bit dire, but she still pushed me! I mean, what if my wig fell off? How would I explain that? Or, if he slammed into a book shelf and ended up with a concussion, or spontaneous memory loss? I mean, how screwed would we be then?

"You know, this isn't my fault." Usually when she said this, and Maddie said it a lot, it was always her fault. "I mean, Bert should've let us know that he was coming. He's suppose to be watching the monitors."

"Actually, if I recall, you're suppose to be watching the monitors." I had to stop myself from yelling that out, and like usually, when Maddie heard the truth and it didn't work in her favor, she ignored it. "Besides, I'm sure he's got a good reason."

"Well, for what he put us through-" It was more of what he put me through, but I decided not to cut in. I'd learned that working as a team meant keeping your mouth shut a lot of the time. "-he better have more than an amazing reason."

The walk to the apartment started out awkward, but after a while me and Maddie got along fine. It was just a quick little fight. Me and her have been known to have them from time to time, but never this early into an assignment. It was a demonstration of how stressed the two of us were becoming.

* * *

When we arrived at the apartment, Maddie wasted no time in hunting down Bert, who, surprisingly enough was staring adamantly into the monitor.

"Bert! What the hell have you been doing the whole time? I mean, incase you weren't aware-" Maddie had gone off on him, but upon seeing the monitor she quieted down. "Who is that...?" Bert shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry about not calling." Maddie shrugged, her anger suddenly dispersed. Curious as to what was going on, I went over to the monitor. Arthur's suppose to be empty apartment, wasn't empty.

"Wait a second. Who is that? He lives alone, doesn't he?" Bert nodded.

"Then how'd he get in?" I glanced at the monitor showing the entrance hall, and the door seemed to be perfectly intact.

"He probably had a key." Maddie commented, just as curious.

"Weirder than that." Me and Maddie glanced at each other.

"Spill." We both said simultaneously.

* * *

"...the closet?" I didn't know whether to laugh or to cringe.

"Look, I know it sounds weird, but rewind the tapes later. I kid you not. I was going to call you the moment Arthur left, but as soon as he locked the door, this guy came out of that closet." Bert was pointing towards the hallway closet. Arthur hadn't even glanced at it since we've been watching him.

"How'd he get in?" Maddie asked, still as shocked as I was. I mean, what was he doing in his closet in the first place?

"I checked the tapes. He came in through the window, had crappy timing, headed immediately for the hall closet, when Arthur came home. Seemed to know his was around the place really well. So, it got me thinking, Arthur must know the guy. Went through all the photos, and found a match." He motioned towards the coffee table. "His names Nash. He used to be the architect for the team, something happened. I'm not sure what, all I know is they ended up parting ways, on the wrong foot with each other. As far as we've been told, the two haven't had contact since."

I asked the obvious question. "So, what's he doing in Arthur's apartment?"

"Look for yourself." And we did. He was sitting in Arthur's chair, going through all the folders and files on it, specifically the ones pertaining to Paul Wood. After sifting through the files, he was sure to place everything where he found it. He snapped a few pictures, then started going through the information on the computer.

"He's snooping." Me and Maddie said, looking at each other.

"But whose he working for?" Bert shrugged at my question.

"My guess is Paul Wood."

* * *

"You will not believe the day I had." Cam said upon entering the room, a cocky grin on his face.

"Just shut up and sit down." Bert said, forcing Cam into the chair. Maddie was the one who had to delve into the tale about the 'Nash incident,' while Cam stared at Arthur going about his normal night routine. Nash had left the apartment upon receiving a phone call, ten minutes before Arthur arrived at home.

Arthur however, upon entering the house was completely oblivious. He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, not at all aware of the fact that his entire team was being set up as he slept soundly in his bed.

"We can't let them go through with it." Maddie said, and silently we all agreed with her. Then, like always, it was Cameron to the rescue.

"Relax. I got a plan."

* * *

And the plot thickens.

Review please! It'll guilt me into updating faster.

:)


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